Ker remebered the day he felt his first emotions. The control chip that all baby Psychlos were given, to curb their emotions, had been turned off and he was now experiencing something he had not yet named. As they, once again, sat round a fire ring, Ker stared into the flames trying to place what he felt. He spoke out suddenly to Johnnie.

"I feel an emotion I don't know. It makes me. . ."

"Sad?"

"What is that like?"

"You feel, not happy about something. It makes you scared, or cry or makes you question what you're doing."

"Yeah, yeah I feel that." He showed a thoughtfulness on his face plates. "The female went through all of that under Terl and then dies. Its. . . " he struggled for the right words as they were unfamiliar to him, "sad since the child must die too." He adjusted his blasted face mask.

"What do you mean? We can't kill him!" Johnnie said in a hushed whisper.

Ker stared at him. "When the rest of the Psychlos find out about him. Think about it, Psychlos that can breath Earth Air. Can go places where our breathing gas limits us. The others will kidnap your females and when they return." He chuckled. "Well you don't want that to ever happen. This child proves that the two species can cross successfully, the possibilities from that can create an endless war."

Johnnie understood perfectly what that meant. They had once touched on the question but he tried not to answer it. He looked to the child, whose father was an evil creature, a baby born from hate fueled rape. Carrying the eyes of his mother. Suddenly he could see Chrissie in that predicament and he quickly shook it from his head. This child was never meant to happen but Johnnie could not find it in himself to end its life.

"We should never have found him." Ker said.

"Just leave him in the woods then? Forget about him?"

Ker laughed once. "That is what Terl thought. Could not kill his own offspring but wanted her to disappear."

"Making them go away does not make the problem end."

"Stories might spread."

"But they will also die."

"And if he ventures far from his home looking for us?"

Johnnie could see where Ker was pushing it. But he could not put the discovery to rest and it was eventually Rocky who made the choice. After a few days of the intruders sulking around and Rocky staring at Ker, he came close. He edged closer, watching the bigger creature for sudden movements. Green eyes stared at orange and Ker was made uneasy by the odd colored Psychlo eyes.

"You are like me?" He asked.

Ker laughed. "A Psychlo who can't speak the language! Never gets old!"

Rocky looked to Johnnie for translation.

Instead of tell him the truth of Ker's words he said, "He says it still amazes him to find you. There is no one else like you." He said kindly.

That made him smile in an uncertain way. "I hear mother whisper about a Great Village where my birth mother came from. Denver. Its where you come from?" He seemed excited.

Johnnie had the impression that Karen did not tell Rocky everything Mary had told her.

He nodded anyway. "Yes."

"I've heard the elders tales but I have never seen one!" He looked round and then leaned in to whisper. "Can you take me there?"

"You really want to go?"

"Rocky!" Karen was watching.

Rocky looked at them, nodded-which was odd in itself- and got up to lumber off. Ker shook his head.

"He wants to know so much." Johnnie said.

"I can teach him Psychlo, he knows it, its in his blood. He just can't understand. But he would if they would let him."

The human nodded.

As Rocky came close to Karen she walked towards the small lake besides their home.

"I told you to stay away from them." She said.

"But mother he is my people. We share blood." He smiled.

She refused to look at his happiness. "These are your people boy! Me and your father and everyone else around you!"

"But they don't. . ." he trailed off.

"Don't what? Look like you? The ones who did abandoned you! Sent you and Mary to die in the woods. Are those the type of people who will be happy to see you?"

He rumbled. "Guess not. . . "

She stopped and sighed. "You know I do not enjoy seeing you sad. But I will not hear about these strangers from you. Talk to them if you must, but I will hear no more of you going to this Denver place you hear?"

He nodded and they looked at each other. She smiled sadly and reached up to touch his face bones. She had no doubt that when she looked into his face she saw the face of his father, of a brutal beast of some poor girl's horrific tale. He put a large claw over her hand, gentle of course so as not to crush her. That was when she knew that he would never be like his father, he may have had the temper but he was good at heart.

"Now off with ye," she said. "Go to work, go help the men hunt or make yourself useful."

He nodded and went off. She watched him go. Knowing that the curiosity of his blood was right in front of him and it must have killed him to stay away.

For days, Karen was trying to decide their fate. Kill them, let them go, blind them and cut their tongues out. They knew too much, so did Rocky. He would not let this go and if he ever wanted to go after them she could not stop him. This had come up in conversation between her and Nathan, who was surprisingly on Rocky's side. He was the one who pointed this out to her. Rocky had spoken of nothing else except the one who looked like him. He spoke of nothing else except these great villages where this Johnnie had come from. She knew that the moment he heard these things it had been too late, same as when Johnnie had heard about Rocky's conception, it had been too late. The idea to find his mother and father's homelands had been too much. There were many dangers she had argued, but he had not listened. He never did.

Nathan stepped beside his wife. They had fostered the boy and he knew as well as Karen what would happened if they refused him.

"He will ride off, you knew one day he would. He is too human that way." He said. "You could not hide him forever."

"I tried." She looked at him. "You will go with us? Should I agree to let him go?"

"Me and my best men."

She nodded. "I hate it when you're right."

"This way at least we can go with him and watch over him. He deserves to at least know about the legacy of his people."

"Expose him to the monsters they are?"

"Maybe not all of them."

"His father was."

"Is that was scares you? That he might find his father?"

"Johnnie says he doesn't know the father, nor does that beast with him."

"He may be dead."

"He may not be."

He stepped behind her and rubbed her shoulders. They could see both Johnnie, the Psychlo named Ker and Rocky talking to each other. Usually Rocky was quiet but Karen saw how lively he was now, after so many years of trying to be accepted by the tribe he finally was. It had been hard for him, with his temper outbursts in his younger days to being the tallest, strongest male around. Yet he had no prospects with the women of the tribe. They were kind to him but none willingly thought of marrying him. She knew that Nathan was right, eventually the boy would have wandered off. Better she get to go with him and try in some way to protect him and prepare him.

Johnnie was calm when Karen sat down next to him for a moment. She was silent for some time, Rocky watched her with wide eyes. She sighed, shook her head, looked at Ker, put her head in her hands, sighed again and then looked up.

"Alright Johnnie Good Boy. You get to live. Your men get to return home and I will return with you also. Me and mine." She nodded and without waiting for an answer turned and went into her hut.

Rocky couldn't believe it. He was going to the Great Village. He was going to find the truth.